msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen, "lockup: raw." >> you're in jail. there's no greater punishment in the world. >> you're here with crack heads, dope fiends, rapists, murders. >> we're all treated guilty until proven otherwise. >> "lockup" has spent time in three of america's busiest and largest jails, l.a. county, miami-dade and new york's rikers island. they represent a real cross section of life across the

country. each one has its own unique set of challenges. >> lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. >> got to be on point. >> lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. >> can't let your guard down for nobody. >> this is not a place to be. >> this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> step back behind the red line. >> everyone, bend over. >> if you like this type of thing, this is the place to be. >> i want to kill myself. i can't take it. for the uninitiated or in this case, the unincarcerated, there is sometimes confusion between prison and jail. prison is only for convicted felons. jails also how's convicts but only those awaiting transfer to prison or serving short-term sentences. usually less than a year. >> listen up for your name.

>> stand on the foot prints for me, please. >> most jail detainees have pending court cases, have been denied or are unable to make bail. >> put your stomach on the wall, hands behind your back. >> there is another type of jail detainee as well and they're often the most dangerous. those who have just been arrested, sometimes still drunk, high on drugs or fresh from committing a crime. >> my biggest challenge in here is dealing with the various types of people that come in from the streets. we have a lot of mental patients, a lot of the inmates have psychological problems and they haven't taken their medication for a long time. >> are there voices talking to you? >> yes, there is. >> you do hear them? >> yes, i do. >> okay. how long has the voices been talking to you? >> for a while. >> for a while. >> sometimes they're unavoidable, you know, the people that come in here have nothing to lose. they're coming in here on their third strike.

they're angry at the officers that arrested them. sometimes they take that aggression out on us. >> during shoots at three of the nation's largest jail systems, our crews have always come to expect the unexpected. >> this is how we wash our clothes, in the sink. >> at the miami-dade county jail we ran into a young inmate who was washing his clothes in the sink in his cell. he was an interesting looking kid. we asked for an interview. >> is for the birds, man. this is for the birds. they locked up. it's for the [ bleep ] birds. >> the interview is not like a lot of interviews. it had a lot to do with lazaro complaining about conditions. >> nobody, man. they ain't playing, man, they giving out permanent homes across that courthouse. >> the next thing we know officers were running in, telling us we had to grab our gear and go. they there was some kind

disturbance going on. and they were locking down the floor. >> that was a backup call you just heard. officers are responding to the fifth floor emergency. >> put them on their bunks. everybody on their bunks. >> fortunately it turned out it wasn't a riot and we were able to keep shooting. that's what makes jails very interesting. there's a strong sense that anything can happen at any time. >> and nowhere is that more true than behind the walls of the sprawling jail complex that serves america's largest city. >> while new york city is the safest largest city in america, crime has been going down, one of the reasons the crime is going down is because the police do make a lot of arrests. everybody who gets arrested and who doesn't get bailed out comes

to us. >> get arrested in the big apple and you're almost assured of a trip to rikers island. a 400-acre penal colony on the east river, directly under the flight path of the laguardia airport. the island is home to an average of 14,000 inmates in ten different facilities. >> we patrol the meanest precincts in america. when our officers go to work, everyday, they know everyone they run into is going to be a criminal. every criminal who has committed the worst act -- >> bring all your property with you. >> is coming through here if they're coming from new york city. >> they come off of the streets. they're tired, they're dirty, they're hungry. and you saw everything there, whether it was somebody who was from wall street who was charged with fraud or whether it was the lowest of the low of the drug dealers. >> we get between 80 to 90

admissions a day, around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 356 days a year. >> what size you wear? >> 8 1/2. >> guess what, 10 is your lucky number. these are air giulianis. you can have them, my brother. >> the city never sleeps. >> don your mask. >> while cell inspections are routine at all the jails and prisons pro-filed on "lockup," they were conducted with a military-like show of force at rikers. first, the emergency response team marches to the cell block in full riot gear. armed with high voltage stunt shields. they secure the area and provide an intimidating presence for any inmates who might be tempted to

resist. then a team of correctional officers moves into the cells to begin their inspections. >> the last time they came in here, went in everybody's cell and took everything out their cell and threw it on the tier. after they was done, there was 48 people's property mixed newspaper the middle of the floor, personal clothes, legal work. they said this is how we dish you. >> while the inspections anger many inmates, they are conducted for safety. the primary goal is to uncover weapons and they're often successful. >> contraband weapons, approximately five inches long, sharpened metal, found in the bed frame. >> during our stay on rikers island, one weapon that wasn't found was used in a double

stabbing involving two inmates. >> yesterday approximately 1140 hours we had a stabbing. >> inmate byaz was sitting at one table. another inmate was associating himself with the bloods, had his back to him, inmate byaz removed the shank from his pocket, turned around and stand the inmate in the back. >> do you recall the weapon. >> yes. >> what type of weapon? >> a shoe support from a work boot that was sharpened. went in three-quarter of an inch. at which time he removed the weapon from his back and stabbed inmate byaz. >> both inmates received puncture wounds? >> yes, sir to. >> to combat such jailhouse attacks, correctional officials often prosecute the offenders with new charges in addition to the ones that landed them in jail. >> i'm placing you under arrest for assault. place your hand behind your

beck. >> i stabbed one of the bloods in the back. >> we were shocked that he confessed to us, that he would admit to us on camera that he actually stabbed another prisoner. >> when he thought he pulled it out, he attacked me and stabbed me in the lower part of my abdomen. >> rodney, the other inmate involved in the incident is the also arrested and put in the holding cell next to byaz. he denies being a gang member to our producer. >> i just wanted to know why he stabbed me. for what? i don't even know him. >> he knows why, because he was running with them. >> running with who? >> them guys. they were trying to set me up. >> i never spoke to the guy you. >> know the name of the guy you stabbed? >> no. >> you just now he was part of the gang? >> yes. >> they'll both be charged with

penal 200125, possession of a weapon in the fourth. if found guilty they could receive 3 1/2 to 7 in addition to what they're incarcerated with already. coming up on "lockup: raw," gang violence inside america's toughest jails. these kids don't know how to act like proper gangster anymore.

lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. >> facility, lockdown, lockdown, lockdown. >> if the nation's largest jail facility is ever caught unprepared, the result can be absolute chaos. >> let's go. >> 40 seconds. >> so when we visited the los angeles county jail, it was no surprise that our cameras captured one of the many drills

that test the readiness of those charged with maintaining order. >> okay, good job, guys. excellent. had a lockdown in a minute 30 seconds. >> the state of readiness when doing that drill was intense. there was tension in the air. a couple weeks pry or, someone was put in a coma from a pretty bad beating. no one was killed. >> jail is completely different than what it was 30 years ago. for one thing we have much more violence-prone inmates in our system. in the past, that was never a problem. we did not have major riots, disturbances. we did not have the races fighting against one another in the jail system. >> l.a. county jail officials told us most of that violence stems from one source. ♪

>> almost half of our jail population is street gang members and they are probably responsible for 70 to 80% of the crime that occurs in our jail. and nearly all of our murders have been gang related in one way or another. >> the gang bangers get younger every year. >> you are in a gang. >> yes. >> what gang are you in? >> south gate marijuanos. >> he told us he joined a gang when he was 14. >> you have a job outside. >> no. >> you gonna get a job. >> i don't think so but you never know. >> how are you going to survive. >> there's ways to survive out there. self-employed. >> i continue to question him. i started pressing, started finding out, trying to find answers to things, what really motivates him to do that. his gear shifted from being like a goof ball to, you know, you're

crossing the line here with your questioning. >> what kind of things you do as a gangster in your daily job? >> no comment on that one. >> just like -- i'm sure you have an every day thing. you guys organize, don't you. >> kick it, get drunk and party. >> yeah. make sure ain't nobody tripping around you. >> he stared me down and kind of gave me that junkyard dog look, like i think we're done here. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. >> the 44-year-old inmate spent almost 25 years in either jail or prison. back at l.a. county on an attempted murder charge, he told us he doesn't care much for the new generation of gang bangers. >> when i was out there, i would steal cars. joyride, whatever you want to call it. look at the new generation, car jacking. these kids go out, stick a gun in someone's face to go joyriding in a car, turn a misdemeanor crime into a death

penalty case. they don't get time around guys like me anymore to tell them they look stupid. you don't want to sit on death row for a crime you could have got out of jail in 24 hours on. >> it was a generation gap between gangsters. there's a code of ethics amongst killers and felons. he felt like the new generation was not abiding by that. >> when my dad was a small-time mafioso back east, he used to say there are thugs and gangster. thugs come and go. gangsters are about making money and respect. you have to know two things, you don't kill cops and you don't kill innocent women and children. if you live that way, most cops will let you make a dime. >> we've had some issues with the gangs here in miami-dade

county but not to the extent in l.a. county and some of the other larger jurisdictions. >> the miami-dade county jail faces a daunting problem of its own. the area's booming narcotics trade and the casualties in its wake. >> the crimes vary but most of them are centered around use of drugs. >> we don't know if they're high on drugs, going to come through and fight a bunch of people. >> we had superman come in one day. he was visibly upset because they took his cape. >> we had just gotten done interviewing some of the jail officers about miami's drug problems and how they contribute to most of the city's crime. when we stepped outside and saw an officer bringing in a young man to be booked. >> retail theft t. turns out he was also a prime example of someone whose drug abuse was not only leading to other crimes but stealing his life from him. >> do you want to give up drugs?

>> yes, i've tried. i don't do drugs every day. i don't smoke crack every day. but when i do, i go on a binge. >> are you presently taking any kind of medication? >> crack cocaine. prozac. that's for depression. >> alfonzo's drug abuse land him in jail so many times, that it really just felt completely routine. he seemed to know the rest of the booking procedure well enough that he could just walk himself through it. >> are we processing and fingerprint? >> after we get through with this, yes. >> i done been here about 20 times. >> alfonzo even knew the best time of day to get arrested. >> at night it gets so crowded, you have to use the bathroom in front of people. god knows if you have to take a dump. by me coming here early in the morning, i think i got a big break. >> the sad thing about alfonzo, he not only had an addiction

that kept getting him thrown in jail, he couldn't be honest about it to his own family. his one phone call was to his mother and it was heartbreaking. >> i'm over here, over town. i was with a friend. i'm spending the night with a friend. it's a female, though. i'm so sick of lying to my mom. i feel so bad. what can she do? she ain't gonna bail me out. i call, mom, i'm in jail. again? i told you to stay home. i didn't want to hear all that right now. the damage has been done. >> after being processed, alfonzo was finally assigned to a cell. >> then i be here until court. coming up on "lockup: raw" -- >> it's all with misdemeanors. >> the women who cope -- >> she's telling you all she need help.

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i've been here a little over ten days. >> and what are you in for? >> trespassing. >> we met mildred rodriguez at new york's rikers island jail. she represents a rising tide of women who find themselves on the wrong side of jailhouse bars. >> i'm using heroin, i use crack, i'm not going to lie. this is what brings you back here. >> what do you expect the city to do? >> i expect the city to stop re-arresting me. that's what i expect. i'm angry. >> the women are more emotional than men. a lot of them may be going through psychological trauma. they're separated from their families, their children. >> every week i'm here. i'm not saying this is good because it's not good to say hey, i come to rikers island every week.

it's bad. it's terrible. my record is about this thick. it's all with misdemeanors. i have over 35 misdemeanors. i want them to say, we are going to give you a year's program and that's it. don't give me 30 days or 10 days, because it's not helping me. >> this young lady back here, she's telling y'all she needs help. they're throwing her in and out of here like nothing's going to help her and it's not. >> but they can't catch no real criminal. that's how i feel, i'm being honest. they got murderers out there, the drug dealers. they will pick up the drug addict instead of the person that giving it to them and i think that's totally unfair. >> drug-related arrests and anger at the system were common themes among most of the women we met in jail. >> we are threatened with everything. threatened to get in our bunks. threatened to get things out of our hair that may, just make us feel a little bit more feminine.

>> repeat offender kimberly had just been sentenced to four years in prison for sales of a controlled substance. with her time at the l.a. county jail nearing an end, she let loose on the staff. >> i feel like the sheriff's department is organized crime itself anyway. they organize a way to disenfranchise us at every step. if we stick together, they break our pods up. i was in a whole other pod. all of a sudden i'm in this pod over here. why? because we all got along. >> hey, ladies. >> there are women here that are actually innocent and we are all treated guilty until proven otherwise. >> how come you are all in there? are you having a party in there? >> l.a.'s women's facility wasn't all doom and bloom. this group found a creative way to play volleyball with a toilet paper net held up by sanitary pads. >> they had to stretch it pretty far to connect it to the wall and every five seconds it would fall down and have three or four

sanitary napkins smashed up against the cinder block wall to try to keep it up. just goes to show you that when you are inside, if you need to distract yourself from the day-to-day craziness of being locked up, you will do just about anything to entertain yourself. >> as surprising as this jailhouse pickup game was, our crew found another unexpected sight back at rikers island. incarcerated mothers, raising their babies. >> she loves me a lot. she's a good baby. >> georgena and her baby were vanessa were housed at rikers maternity cell block, a place for inmates who have babies in jail. >> under new york state law, a woman who gives birth while in custody has a legal right to keep the baby with her for up to a year. as long as they're not neglectful or abusive of the child.

>> being in that nursery was probably one of the saddest places i can remember on rikers island. it was a real slice of reality. and i remember the crew and i talking about how sad we felt for these children. >> at this stage, they don't know where they are. all they know they are with their mother and that's it. they do not know where they are except that mommy is there. >> this young mother who asked that we not reveal her name was with her infant daughter. >> it's nice. nice to be able to take care of her. the disadvantage is that she doesn't see the outside. she doesn't hear the dogs barking, the cars going by. >> what's your greatest fear for her? >> losing my child. that's the only thing. i face a lot of time. that's my greatest fear. coming up on "lockup: raw" -- >> i call it the drama floor. >> gender bending inmates.

>> we cut up sheets and towels and stuff like that to look like dresses. >> and jailing the mentally disturbed. >> he didn't seem violent but he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in a room alone with. now back to "lockup."

due to mature subject

>> i'm not doing something, somebody will find something for me to do. most of the time it's stupid stuff. better just find something for yourself. when we met joseph regan at one of the massive kitchens at new york city's rikers island jail, he was serving 90 days for misdemeanor assault and penny larceny. >> they're not always as clean as they should be. and you got cockroaches and stuff in here like that. but, you though, didn't see anybody die lately so i guess they get away with it. >> while he may never get a job as a rikers island spokesman, he offered a plug for life here. >> if you like being told what to do, if you like being told what to eat, when to sleep, go to the bathroom, scratch your ass, if you like taking a chance getting your ass kicked or getting killed, then this is the place for you. >> like many other inmates here,

reagan has had multiple arrests. >> most people that come to jail stay in jail, regardless if they go home or not. they come back and come back. they end up spending the rest of their life in jail. >> while inmates can sometimes be in denial about the circumstances that brought them to jail, reagan was crystal clear. >> it's not that we don't have the knowledge to do different things. i know carpentry, i know masonry. it's not like i don't have the ability or skills. it all comes down to choice. i just choose not to. for various reasons. lack of discipline. self-confidence. self-destructive nature. not that i can't do it. it's just that i don't. >> but not everyone believes jail is a choice. some feel they are victims to a probation system that's all too easy to violate and keeps sending them back. >> i was told by my first probation officer, after reading the conditions of my probation,

if you can do this without me violating it, you will be lucky. this was the first time i met this man, the first time i had been on probation. he was very right. >> eric johns' original charge was for sexual battery. after serving four years in prison, he was released on probation. but when a urine test proved positive for marijuana, he was back in the miami-dade county jail. >> i am a three-time loser. this makes my third time. once you are in the system, you will be back. >> eric johns was definitely a loner in the jail system, but he developed his own method of survival. he told us how during his first stay in jail he sent a message to ward off any predatory inmates. >> the first time i came in, the first thing i did was i looked for the biggest guy in the unit and decked him. that's how i lost my front teeth. i got my teeth knocked out. but, they said at that point, either that guy is crazy or he's bad, but we're going to leave

him alone. he just ain't worth it. it worked. i am a caucasian male, i speak english. i'm educated. i'm the oddball and i realize that. actually, this looks like one of the better meals. you should be here on pigeon night. i think they call it chicken night everywhere else. there is nothing in here that fascinates me or makes me happy. this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> seeing many of the same inmates cycle in and out of their facilities is not uncommon for most jail officials. nor is it unusual for certain types of inmates to be housed together, as we discovered during a visit to the fifth floor of the los angeles county jail. >> i call it the drama floor because you get a mix of everything. you get a mix of general population from petty theft to burglary to the homosexual inmates. normally, they are separated from everyone else simply

because a lot of times they will be abused. there is a lot of homosexual inmates that can fool you. they are gender bending and it's hard to tell. >> my name is tasha. my last name is swain. >> 37-year-old bernard "tasha" swain was serving a nine-month sentence for a parole violation. >> how do you make money on the streets? >> prostitution and selling drugs. >> one of the other things that bernard did on occasion inside l.a. county jail is to put on beauty pageants. like a peacock, so he wanted to show off his feathers. >> you know the miss america pageant? we do them in here but we do them for the boys and we have for girls and boys, the school boys. the vogue and all that kind of stuff like that. it's a variety of things you can run for. it's not just beauty. we cut up sheets and towels and make little dresses and you know. we destroy state property to make the outfits. >> do you make them look better? >> yes, actually.

look at my face. >> we explored another special housing unit at l.a. county as well. the mental health ward where we encountered one of the most unforgettable scenes ever shown on "lockup." >> there was one gentleman in particular who i could barely see him because there was so much graffiti all over his cell door. and all over his walls, it looked like hieroglyphics. >> a lot of the writing on the door is human feces and he's also combined a little mustard on it for coloring. that's what he's writing with on the actual door. he's been here for a long time. so he continually works on it. >> then i saw the inmate inside. he was completely naked except for cellophane over his private parts. seemed very gentle. didn't seem violent. wasn't pounding on the doors. he wasn't hurting himself. but he was not someone you would want to be left in the room alone with.

coming up on "lockup: raw" -- >> if anyone is caught with contraband you will be arrested. >> we found two empty balloons. >> visiting day inside america's toughest jails.

when someone is arrested and they go to jail, they can be there from anywhere from a few hours to over a year. in the jails that we filmed in, the average time was about six weeks. so, the only bright spot for these inmates is a visit from a family member or a friend. >> visitation is an important right for inmates but it also poses a security risk. it's one of the chief ways drugs and other contraband can be smuggled into the jail.

>> at new york city's rikers island, we found the correctional staff wasn't about to let that happen. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to new york city department of corrections. >> my name is officer p. hunt, 9865. i'm a member of the k-9 unit, narcotics unit. today we're going to do a narcotics search. we board the bus and look for any type of illegal substance. crack, cocaine, marijuana. if you have it, now is the time to throw it on the floor or deposit it in that box over there. >> when leaving the bus to enter the jail facility, visitors are not only given a blunt warning about contraband, they're handed a number to correspond with their seat. then a drug-sniffing dog boards the bus. >> so my dog boards that bus and starts scratching seat number three, i'm going to look over and say that's who we have to search. >> right here, we found two empty balloons. now, a lot of people what they like to do is stuff either the marijuana, the crack cocaine

inside these balloons. right here you have seat number 10 and 11, so right now i'm going to request for the officers to search whoever was sitting at seat number 10 and 11. they may still have something on them. >> an off-camera search of the visitors in seats 10 and 11 revealed no contraband and they denied knowledge of the balloons. but inside the reception area, all the visitors were given yet another warning. >> okay, listen up. penal law, a "d" felony. if anyone is caught with contraband, they will be arrested. so look down into your pocketbooks and wallets, i'm not saying that you have anything, but if you happen to find something by chance, you can put it in this empty box right here. >> we want to make the message clear. this is your last chance. we want you to visit your people but we have people that want to try to sneak drugs into the jail. >> security measures are equally

tight at the los angeles county jail. once inside, visitors and inmates are separated by glass partitions and are strictly monitored. >> general population, you get 15 minutes four days a week. that's it. they're on the timers. we push a button, they start up. it clicks when it goes off. and you got to share that space with all those other inmates. they have 15 minutes. as soon as that timer clicks off, there's no warning. it just goes off. so they will be sitting there in the middle of conversation maybe saying i love you to someone, and boom, and there's no sound. >> that sound you just heard clicking is one of the rows shutting off. so that means we got inmates that are ready to return to their housing location. ♪ >> when we met bernard jones at the miami-dade county jail, the aspiring rapper was anticipating

a visit from his girlfriend. he had been incarcerated nearly four years while appealing a life sentence for armed robbery. >> what's your best moment of being here? >> it's hard for me to say that because i have a problem keeping my hands off my areas. the best moment of the week is when i can get me a visit. so i can see a little something because it gets hard in here. i get tired of seeing men every day. so when i get chance to see a beautiful woman -- can't look at the officers too much. that's against the rules. if she is beautiful, i ain't even got the right to tell her, you're beautiful, how you doing? i got to wait to see something of my own. tell her you're beautiful. that's when i get my moment on thursdays and saturdays. thursdays and saturdays. >> well, i think the visit means a lot for him, because if i don't come or no one don't come, he's going to be mad.

>> bernard's girlfriend angela has only know him behind bars. it turns out they had met four months earlier on a blind date of sorts. >> my brother is locked up here, too. and he put him on the phone one day thinking we wasn't going to click. but we did. >> what does he say to you when you come in? does he say, thank god, thank you so much? >> he love me. i'm so beautiful. thank you for coming. thank you for being by my side. that type of stuff. >> you're going to have to go back. >> the transmitter. >> oh, that's what it is. >> you want me to go back in? >> angela was so nervous and then our microphone set off the alarm system. but she had good reason to be excited. at miami-dade, inmates without disciplinary problems are allowed one contact visit a month.

>> are you excited? >> huh? >> are you excited about seeing him? >> yeah, this is my first time being able to touch him. yeah. >> angela was literally hyperventilating. she was overwhelmed with emotion. after four months they would finally get a chance to touch each other. we didn't really know what to expect from the visit. but they had both obviously been anticipating this meeting and the intensity of that moment was very powerful. >> you look pretty. all that for me? >> baby, i love you. i do. >> today is the first time that

we have to touch each other. i want you to know that this day will never be forgotten. i love you, baby, and i always will. >> come closer, please. >> but there's a catch to the contact visits at the miami-dade county jail. >> come closer to me. >> i can't. >> why? >> everybody else is close. >> when there is a contact visit, the couple can only have contact at the beginning and the end of their time together, just quick hug, that's it. bernard was very aware of this. i don't think angela was. >> why you can't stay close to me? >> jail officers are strict because of a history of past infractions. >> don't do that. >> surprise inspections like this one by miami's k-9 team often uncover contraband on visitors. >> i find marijuana and cocaine

all the time. one visitor that came to this jail last year, female, she came to see her boyfriend, i found 12 balls wrapped in plastic and she had it in her body cavities. and the alert was given in that area. and you know, we are not allowed to strip them, but we pat them down. and we found one little ball in her bra. so that gave us probable cause for an arrest. >> but for bernard and angela, the tight constraints make their first contact visit bittersweet. >> i need you to know that. sometimes it ain't nothing we have control of, all right, but we got to follow the rules. all right? you understand? >> yes. >> that's what i need you to do. >> we will make it work. we will because it's not easy being with someone in jail. it's really not. i'm happy being with him, but it's not easy, really not. coming up on "lockup:

raw" -- >> i was in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you. i never had a regular job. >> one woman finds hope in a jailhouse bakery.

one of the most unlikely sights we found on new york city's rikers island was the jail's huge bakery. here, inmates work alongside civilian bakers to help feed the jail's 14,000 residents. >> we make 88,000 loaves a week. every inmate has to get four slices of bread per meal per day. we use bread in the facility used to feed the employees. >> they gave us a couple of loaves and a huge crock of butter.

we slathered this butter on loaves of the bread and it rivaled any bakery in new york. >> inmate rhonda was hoping that the bakery would help turn her life around. >> when i first dame came here, i wanted to hurt myself, i was really depressed. i was, like, going crazy. oh, my god, my records are messed up now. i don't know what to do. i got myself into the bakery. keep myself busy. and i love the bakery. >> ever worked in a bakery before? >> no, i never worked outside. i always been in the streets, hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you. i never had a regular job. >> rhonda was serving eight months on a drug possession charge. >> i was working in the streets. some guy approached me.

i thought it was a date because i work in the streets. so he gives me the money and asked where can i get drugs and i sent him to the drug dealer. i mean, he gave me the money, i went to the dealer, gave him the stuff, one crack and well, you know what? they got me and him, my first felony. >> she told our producer she had worked as a prostitute the last 14 years. >> i didn't like myself doing it. i wasn't too happy about it but i had no choice. i had no money, i had no nothing. >> how many years did you do that? >> since i was 21. >> rhonda hopes the skills she has picked up in the bakery will give her a second chance as a mother. >> got a daughter? >> yes, she's 14. she's with her father's mother in florida. >> what's her name? >> roseanne. >> she writes to you? >> yeah. >> what does she write? >> saying that she loves me, she misses me. start crying right now. it's all right.

are you all right? >> yeah. okay. i miss my daughter. >> i know you do. i know you do. all right. >> my heart went out to her because whenever prisoners begin to talk about their children, it is the one very sensitive spot in their lives. and no matter what they may have done to get them to a jail, to prison, they still are very touched, and love their children. >> good thing is that you got a lot out of being here, right? >> yes. ever since i've been in here for several months, doing my eight months, i feel good now. i just thank god that i'm in here, i'm glad. because when i was in the street, i started smoking that stuff and it didn't help me. didn't get me anywhere. got me into trouble. it got me in here. but now i learned my lesson,

ain't touching it no more. i want my life back together. >> i felt that i was going to commit crimes to the day i died. i hate the government, society, america, slavery. all the excuses you could think of until i started to just take accountability for my own actions and responsibility for what i had done to my life. >> scott randolph was another rikers inmate anticipating his release. when we met him, he was serving a year for petty larceny and violating parole. >> i just spiraled out of control as far as criminality goes. i've been back and forth a few times, mostly for drug activity. trying to make money hustling in the street. >> but randolph took advantage of the jail's writing program and had hopes of becoming a journalist. >> we publish the "rikers review" which is published by inmates for inmates. it was extremely helpful. it gave me a lot of computer skills, marketable skills.

so i'm looking forward to trying to utilize that when i get down. >> the prison journal included one of his poems. >> can we read a little bit of your poem? >> all right. this someone called hold this. hold this. grip these words as if your embrace alone will help me save my life so that i might live to give my tomorrows as pavement for yesterday's debts. >> randolph says the poem is his vision for a new life. >> the future conceals hopes and happiness yet to feel. with this you present a fresh foundation on which to rebuild. the peace i seek is real. i reach for your compassion strong as steel. this is my truth that you feel. may you cherish my conscious. hold this. that's it

there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates, "lockup."